It's "PUNKIN" Time!!

It's that time of year when all things are spooky, orange, and full of sugar. We enjoy this time of year and have a lot of traditions, but this time, it was a little crazier. Our kids are getting bigger and that makes some things a lot harder. I hope we can hold onto these traditions as long as possible. What a fun time of year!!

First tradition is the "PUNKINS"! We have been growing our own pumpkins for four or five years now. Usually, we get quite a few and they are HUGE. It is so fun to watch them get bigger and bigger over the summer. Unfortunately, this year the earwigs got to them, and only two little pumpkins made it...TWO! How disappointing! Oh well, change of plans....we took a trip to the pumpkin patch and let the kids pick out their own pumpkin. (sorry for the low picture quality, my camera is being weird and I still can't find my computer cord for it, so most of these pix are from my phone.)

We had a lot of fun picking out our pumpkins, although they were pretty heavy. I think we purchased over 200 pounds of pumpkins that night!

Second tradition is Frightmares! at Lagoon. We love going to Lagoon this time of year...less crowds and nice weather. We didn't take full advantage of our season passes this year because of my surgery, so we were glad for a chance to go. We went with our friends, the Andreasons. We love them a ton and we all had a great time (we even watched a hypnotist show!)

We also have fun playing with the kids and their friends. This includes class Halloween parties at school. I dropped the ball this year for the first time and didn't go into help, but they had fun with their classes. I did, however, have a playgroup Halloween party for Ethan and his friends. I took all of them to the pumpkin patch and let them pick out their own (little) pumpkin, and then we brought them home to paint...yep, paint. We don't carve pumpkins at our house, it's too messy and the pumpkins don't last very long, so we paint them instead. The boys had a ball.

And here they are in their costumes before their preschool Halloween party. Aren't they cute (especially the cowboy on the end)?

Next tradition was to paint our family pumpkins. We always do this for Family Home Evening the first part of October. Again, this year was crazier than usual due to the fact that Lauren has two ballet practices on Monday night. So she and Dad didn't get to paint theirs and Braiden just ran out of time to finish his. But for those of us who did paint, we had a great time! Ethan was so funny, he painted himself as a skeleton on his pumpkin. Katie painted "Trick or Treat! But I prefer the treats!" on her pumpkin!

Now it's onto the Halloween party. Our ward puts on a HUGE Halloween Bash every year, complete with food, face painting, game booths, homemade Rootbeer, and lots of candy. It is so fun and our neighbors really go all out on their costumes. Ryan and I are not big into dressing up for the holiday, but this year we decided to go for it. Ryan was Napoleon Dynamite and I was Deb. We both looked pretty funny, but I didn't get any pictures!! Again, not to sound like a broken record, but this year was crazy...I had to be somewhere else the night of the party, so I was only there for a few minutes and Ryan was running the Rootbeer station all night, so I didn't get to document the event. But believe me when I say, we looked great. I managed to get my hair in a side ponytail and wore ridiculous white pants, a horrible pink shirt, and a fanny pack. Ryan was "incredible" in his hair, glasses, T-shirt, and boots! Maybe I will make him put the hair and glasses on and snap a quick picture here soon so you can get a taste for it...it was hilarious! Lauren and her friends did get their pictures taken at the party...so cute!

Now it's time for the main event. The big night of begging for free food door to door. Good times! I cooked a bunch of soups and had Denise, the Groves, and the Mays over for dinner. The girls left early to go Trick or Treating with their friends, so we didn't get a group Halloween picture, but here are all the kids in their costumes.

Ethan

The Cowboy

Katie

The Cute Witch

Braiden

BumbleBee from Transformers

Lauren

Hermione from Harry Potter

All in all, we had a great Halloween, just busier and crazier than usual. Everyone seems to be going a hundred different directions and it takes a lot more effort to keep up with traditions. I guess that's just happens when we get older. But it's well worth the effort to keep trying.

One last note, I couldn't leave this one out. After Halloween, Ryan left his Napoleon wig in the car and Ethan snatched it up and started singing a funny song. I guess we all know what he will be next year.

Happy Halloween!